Death Angel
by orlha
Summary: Naruto, Shikamaru and Kiba return emptyhanded now they have to retrieve Sasuke dead or alive. How much as changed since then? Since the last time Naruto fought Sasuke, who will triumph?
1. Brooding and Author's Note

Author's Note 

I wrote this story based on the assumption that Neji and Chouji had died during their chase. If you have not read those chps, this will be a spoiler. Do not read it in that case. Please tell me what you think of it! thnx!

---

I'm terribly sorry for those who were reading this. Didn't realize people actually liked it. ..: I decided to pick up continuing writing it, though I first have to track down and re-read the manga and the story. : Righty, expect an update soon. Probably after I complete my novel. :

Sorry for the uber long wait.

_Here's what you should look forward to. _

-- A slightly different style of writing

-- A tiny switch of stories

-- I'd have probably eventually weed out my own character and replace it with genuine characters.

_Here's what you should not be looking forward to. _

**-- Changing of previous chapters** (I hate how it used to be written but I've decided to keep it that way)

**-- That the plot will change to align itself to the current actual plot**. I will continue along this assumptions that I've made in the previous stories.

**-- Faster updates.** / I afraid my current college has a horrible workload and on top of my novel. It will um... probably much faster than last time but not scheduled nor daily or even weekly.

----

Naruto frowned as he touched the cold slab of concrete. On it craved names of many people including Hyuuga Neji and Akimichi Chouji. The wind blew and the pink petals of the cherry blossom lightly rained in the silent memorial. He remembered the idyllic days when he was younger - when Kakashi-sensei used to bring them on incredibly boring missions like picking litter and weeding.

Then he still didn't know how it felt with the cold brush of death even after the fight with Zabuza and ever faithful Haku. Thos were the days where Sasuke and he would fight over the most trivial stuff like who would pick up a new skill faster or even eating faster.

So many things had changed since then, since the last Chuunin exam: where he met Jiraiya, Tsunade-obasan or even Kabuto the sound spy. They had gone down the different paths both opposite of each other.

"Damn Orochimaru," he cursed and slammed his fist onto the stone.

Everything would have fallen back into place if it was not for Orochimaru. He brainwashed Sasuke by making him believe that he would make Sasuke even more powerful when all he wanted was Sasuke's body, curse seal and advanced bloodline - the Sharingan. Sasuke had foolishly believed him and the four gates thus leaving Leaf Village to seek power.

"That power crazy idiot," he muttered.

But not everything was their fault. There was his fault too. Though he gained recognition from Jiraiya, Tsunade-obasan, Kakashi and even Orochimaru who saw him as a threat, he only hungered for Sasuke's recognition. Perhaps if he had stopped there it would have been better. Sasuke who suddenly found his 'power' threatened by Naruto's rising strength began to crave to top Naruto again. Maybe at the hospital, it would have been better to listen to Sakura for once.

Now everything was done, nothing could change the past. Four genin, one Chuunin and a dog left Leaf Village in pursue for Sasuke, only two genin, one chuunin and the dog returned alive. Neji and Chouji had died for one man. Yet all was in vain

_"Naruto, you have better eyes than me."_

"I'll bring him back," Naruto said and exited the memorial.

Kakashi watched him from a corner of the memorial on the cherry blossom tree.

"…"


	2. on a mission

Death Angel

Author's Note

Not as good as the previous... TT   I keep striving…

"He burdens himself with too many blames," Gai remarked appearing beside Kakashi.  "Looks like he's another frequent memorial visitor." Gai glanced at Kakashi to seemed to have not heard a single word.  "AHH!!  Were you even listening?!" Gai yelled exasperatedly.

"You were talking?"

"Urgh! I was! Anyway, Godaime sent me to find you. She wants you to report to her office now."  Kakashi nodded and disappeared.

"Godaime," Kakashi greeted as he entered Tsuande's office. 

"Kakashi, you're one of our best.  Sakura has been training under Shizune as a medical ninja while Naruto excels under Jiraiya's guidance," she started.  "It's time that you have new charges.  Our forces have built up since the last attack."

"We all do respect Godaime, but please come to the point," Kakashi interrupted.

"Very well, ANBU scouts have reported the moving of Sound Nins.  I do not intend to under trained any genin so I hope you could train them as skillfully as possible, should there be another attempt to invade or destroy."

"I understand."

Konohamaru cursed as he sat on the bench waiting.  Thankfully Udoso had managed to be in the same team with him although Moegi had not been so lucky.  Konohamaru drummed his fingers impatiently, glaring angrily at the door then at his other teammate.  The sight of her irked him.  Her pale grey eyes stared motionlessly at the door.  "Someone's coming," she reported softly.

"FINALLY!" Konohamaru yelled as the door slid open.

"Tell me about yourselves," Kakashi said.

Konohamaru immediately stood up.  "I like ramen, I wan to be the next Hokage and I hate her!" he shouted and pointed at her.  A look of disdain flashed through her eyes before returning to the expressionless look.

"I suppose it's my turn now," she said quietly and stood up.  "I'm Hagane Ameki.  I have no wish to tell you what I like or dislike, but I want to be strong enough to protect those that I love."

_'How interesting-' _Kakashi thought as Udoso introduced himself.

- Later - 

Jiraiya was mulling over a bottle of Sake when Kakashi sat down beside him.  "I heard you got new charges-" Jiraiya commented.

"Ya, they're pretty interesting," Kakashi replied watching Jiraiya as he gulped down his Sake.

"Hmm? In what ways? Don't you have the Konohamaru brat?" Jiraiya asked, his words starting to slur. 

"Ah- I do.  But it's not him that is interesting.  Frankly I think he hangs out too much with Naruto.  It's Hagane Ameki that is interesting."

"Hagane- Ameki- Sounds familiar- Isn't that Hagane clan, the one that Tsunade's assistant belongs to?  What his name? Kotetsu?"

"Yes, but not that.  She resembles someone."

"Resembles-? Oh that reminds me, Naruto and I got a mission.  We'll be out for a while.  Did he tell you- by any chance?" Jiraiya asked, slamming his fifth bottle of sake on the table and gulping down the cup of sake.

Author's Note.. Again

It's a bit draggy? Don't you think so?  Please do tell me you frankest opinion. 


	3. starting up

Death Angel

Author's note

Your reviews bring me joy to my life.. sniffs  I'll strive to do better!! 

Kitsu3 I hope I didn't disappoint u  

Mechalich I'm not quite sure if I understood what u meant by where it is going or that part where u said flesh out.. Hmm.. I'll try to give more detail to little events.. though I'm not quite sure u refer as small events

 "My silly comrades- Kukuku-" Sasuke laughed.  "Look at how much more powerful I am now! I wonder how much more powerful I will be when I release the seal."

"Sasuke!  Orochimaru only wants your body!  Listen to me!"

"Kukuku- he calls.  Goodbye my silly comarade," he cackled and leaped away.  "Before I forget, here's a farewell  gift for you!" Turning round he threw his stash of Kunai and shurikens.

_'There's too many!'_ Naruto thought "Urgh!"

He shot up in bed dripping with cold sweat.  The recollection of what happened four years ago still haunted him like a nightmare refusing to disappear.  Slowly, he donned his Jounin uniform, his mind still musing on the past.  As he reached the memorial, he saw a pink haired lady standing in front of the large stone.  "Sakura-chan?"

"I don't want to see your name here-" she said as she traced Chouji's engraved name.  "Bring him back safe, Naruto," she said in a voice choked with tears.  "Come-" she struggled to keep her voice under control.  "Come back safe too, I don't want to lose another teammate either."

"I will.  Don't worry with him," Naruto reassured placing his hand carefully on her shoulder and wiped her tears away with his index finger.  Four years ago, she was taller than him.  Now he towered over her.  She gave him an awkward hug.  "You better start training, Medic Ninja."  She gave a slight smile and walked away.

Flash Back

"This is a S-class mission.  Infilterate Sound village and bring back Sasuke.  Orochimaru holds his will.  Whatever you do, you must not let Sasuke continue to be with Orochimaru," Tsunade said.  "Kill him if you have to and bring his body back."

"Tsunade-" Naruto started.

"These are your orders," Tsunade interrupted frowning. 

"But-"

"You may go."

Naruto bowed and left.

end

Her face lit up as she saw the tall blond guy come round the bend.  A light pink tinge crept onto her face as he drew closer.  "Naruto-kun!" she shouted and bounced happily towards him.  "I was waiting for you.  I heard that you were leaving," she said.

"I was- just about to visit you," he said shyly. _'I wanted to see your smile before I left.  Not even sure I'll be back,'_ Naruto thought gloomily.

"This is for you, Naruto-kun," she said passing a bottle of ointment.

"Thank you," he smiled slightly.  He continued holding on her petite hands before puller her closer and giving a chaste kiss on her forehead.  He smelled her strawberry scented hair as he released her.  "I got to go now, Hyuuga-sama," he laughed and walked away. 

"Naruto-kun," she said grasping his arm and on her tip-toes quickly gave a peck on his cheek.  "I want to see you back safe," she told him before running away, her face a deep shade of hue.

"Akamaru! Let's go! Bye mum!" Kiba yelled, slamming the door as he left.  _'I can't believe I'm embarking on this mission again!  I'm not sure I can do it- heh, just do my best.  After all the Senin will be there,'_ he laughed.  For no apparent reason, he remembered a party where Hinata had turned drunk.  She started scolding Naruto and shouting to everyone that Naruto passed his determination and spirit to everyone while he became cold and pessimistic.

"I wonder how strong he has become since then," he muttered.

  
Kurenai tapped her feet impatiently.  All of them were waiting for one last person and it was way past their agreed meeting time.  She mentally screamed in her head in frustration as another hour crawled past.  Kiba seemed to be engrossed in a book and upon narrowing her eyes in an attempt to read it.  She realized the words on the book said 'Come come paradise'.  She grabbed the book out of his hands and flung it far away.  "I think you have been hanging out way too much with Kakashi," she declared. 

"Hey! My book!  I was bored!" Kiba indignantly yelled. "Here!" she said and thrust him a book. 

He took it and groaned.  "A thousand and one herbs?! I'm better off sleeping like Naruto over there is doing." 

"Huh?" Naruto mumbled and sat up.  "Oh, he's finally here."

"Suman!" Jiraiya said unapologetically.


	4. the test

Death Angel  
  
Authors Note

Kitsu3 em.. Suman means sorry.. but a more lazy way of saying it. Normally I won't put Japanese words in, cuz I know a lot of ppl don't know what they means.. :: but I felt that putting a'sorry' there didn't keep Jiraiya's laziness. Sorry! u  
  


Ameki unrelentingly kicked the wooden pillar. 'I'm too weak!' she scolded herself mentally. Exhausted, she slumped by the almost broken pillar.  
  
"Hoi! Ameki!" Kotetsu yelled.  
  
"Kotetsu-onisan," she said struggling to stand up.  
  
"Here's dinner for you."  
  
"Thank you-"  
  
"I heard Kakashi is your teacher-" She nodded wondering what he was about to say. "It doesn't matter what your result is, but it's how you fight it- " Kotetsu said. "Haha, I'm not making much sense am I?" he chuckled. "Anyway, don't tell anyone I said it- Come let carry you home. Don't think you have much energy left," he said smilingly and piggybacked her home.  
  


Kakashi looked at Konohamaru's eager face, Udoso's tense face and finally resting on Ameki's strangely placid face. 'I wonder what she is after-' he thought. "Today's test is to get these two bells from me," he explained.  
  
_'That's not too difficult-'_ Konohamaru thought. Konohamaru drew his kunai and rushed at Kakashi, without even blinding Kakashi appearing behind him. "Sen Nen Dorushi!" and he stabbed Konohamaru's butt causing Konohamaru to fly into the air. Upon seeing this, Ameki grabbed Udoso and fled into the bushes.  
  
"Be quiet, we find Konohamaru first," she said. They found some way off, headfirst into the sand.  
  
"Konohamaru-kun-" Udoso said as he pulled Konohamaru out.  
  
"Ohh- I'm going to beat the crap out of that-"  
  
"That jounin? That jounin which is the best in the village? We can't beat him yourself can't you see?" Ameki said as Konohamaru stomped off in Kakashi's direction.  
  
"Humph, I don't need a girl to tell me what I should do and what I shouldn't do," Konohamaru defiantly said.  
  
"Think about it, we're all fresh genin. Chances are that even if we three fight together, we might not even defeat him."  
  
Konohamaru scowled angrily at her. As much as he hated to admit she was right, he had to. "Fine, what's your brilliant plan?" he sneered at her.  
  
"He's very fast. So we have to take advantage of that, we'll have to-"  
  
Kakashi watched them from the treetop. Though he couldn't hear a single word they said, he found them highly amusing. Very seldom did two enemies would agree to work together. He leaned back to watch his clone.  
  


"Kakashi-sensei- I think that you're too good for us. I give up-" Udoso said. "Please don't tell them that I told you I gave up-" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Now!" Ameki yelled. Three Konohamaru rushed at Kakashi and grabbed him while Udoso attempted to grab the bells. Quickly he used the replacement technique appearing on the branch of the tree behind him to watch the scene. "Sorry Kakashi-sensei-" Ameki mumbled. Her hand stretched out from the shadow on the branch to grab the bells.  
  
_'Shit!'_  
  
Kakashi immediately jumped off the branch only to be confronted by Konohamaru's clones. "Impressive display of teamwork, you passed," Kakashi calmly said.  
  
"We passed!" Konohamaru yelled bouncing around. A ghost of a smile lingered on Ameki's face.  
  
"Interesting jutsu you used there," Kakashi commented appearing beside her. "Few genin can use ninjutsu let alone a relativity difficult one."  
  
"Thank you," she said.  
  
"I didn't know your clan specialized in earth," Kakashi said.  
  
She stiffened. "They don't," she replied tersely. "When do we start training?"  
  
"Tomorrow, I'll have to write my report first."  
  


Kakashi paused outside Tsunade's office. "She's inside," Kotetsu said. "Wait for a while though."  
  
"Ameki is your sister, isn't she?" Kakashi asked.  
  
Kotetsu nodded with a big grin on his face. "So how did she fare?"  
  
"She's quite smart, very quiet. She used the Earth shadow Jutsu on me. It was pretty surprising."  
  
"Earth Shadow Jutsu? I didn't know she knew that-" Kotetsu muttered frowning. The door swung open and Tsunade walked out.  
  
"Oh, Kakashi. How was it?" she cheerfully asked.  
  
"They passed. My report," Kakashi said passing her a file. Grimacing, she walked back to her desk and placed it on a stack.  
  
"Ameki, she's-" Kakashi started.  
  
"Adopted," Kotetsu answered. "Mother found her eight years ago with not a single memory and starving."  
  
"It seems that she was found on the site of a village south from here. It was flattened and completely razed to the ground. She suffered from mainly first degree burns except for a third degree burn on her back," Tsunade said looking up from the file she had just pulled out.  
  
Flashback

"Mother-" she cried, clutching the lifeless body of a lady. Tears streamed down her face.  
  
"Hey little one, you must remember the jutsu mother taught you," a boy slightly than her told her. He sat down near her coughing. Blood dribbled out of his mouth. Suddenly a black thing flew at them. "NO!" he yelled trying to get up and run towards her.  
  
"Onisan! Help!"  
  
end  
  
Ameki blinked. The weak sunlight was filtering in through the closed blinds. Her fingers wandered to the scar on her back and traced it gently. She had traced it so often that she knew the shape by heart. It was the shape of a flower. She couldn't understand her dreams and often she had woken up breathless. She ran a comb through her light brown hair that fell a few inches short of her waist. A sudden stench of burnt sausages drifted into her room.  
  
"Em- Ameki!" Kotetsu yelled from the kitchen.  
  
"Yes! Coming!" Ameki shouted and ran towards the kitchen, hastily tying her hair into two neat ponytails.  
  
-10 mins later-

Kotetsu embarrassingly chewed on some egg roll that Ameki had cooked. He noticed Ameki lethargically push her food around her plate. "What's wrong?" he asked . She sighed and shook her head. In her mind, she was wondering what had happened when she was young but knew it was pointless on asking Kotetsu.  
  
"I'm going," she said, pushing her plate away and putting her sandals on.  
  
"Hoi, Ameki," Kotetsu said. "Be back early, Izumo is coming over today."  
  
"Ok, bye."  
  
"Have a safe trip," he yelled as she slammed the down behind her.  
  
Author's note again

Sorry this took so long! I was sick.. sorry! u I tried to lengthen it as you can see.. I hope it still keeps the 'flavour'. What you think of Ameki? There was a point when I was writing this and I thought, Geez.. she sounds so... Sasuke.. I hope you dun hate her!

the last part, this is a normal Japanese custom. So since this is supposed to be a Japanese manga, I put it in.


	5. The clash of two teams

Death Angel  
  
Author's Note Sniff and glomps everyone Thank you for your reviews! I feel so happy seeing them!!  
  
Animefreakperson Ahh.. Thnx for pointing it out.. sometimes I start writing rather late.. so errors are inevitable.. =P Thnx anyway.. I've corrected it.  
  
The Gandhara Haha.. I see what you mean it's a bit dry isn't it? . I'll try to put some flesh on it.  
  
Kitsu3 =D thnx! Oi, your Demon child! . waiting for your chp  
  


The sounds of metal clashing against each other were heard. Carefully they advanced, passing corpses of the Sound Nins.  
  
_'Who ever that is attacking should be very dangerous. Too kill so many and yet not to have a single of their companions killed,'_ Kiba thought.  
  
Naruto had already drawn his kunai as they drew closer to the battle scene. Beads of perspiration gather at his forehead and trickled down his tanned face. He stared horrified at the branch of a tree they passed that had been snapped far from its trunk by some brutal force. Suddenly four shurikens flew towards them. In the clearing that they reached stood two ninja wearing the Tsuchi(1) headband. Surrounding them was at least ten corpses. Kurenai squatted down to inspect the corpse, she realized that the corpse like the others that surrounded him had deep claw marks all over. "Jiraiya-sama, these corpses- they died from blood loss," Kurenai said. Naruto felt as though his stomach had turned into jelly and was swimming around. The stench of dead bodies and blood was just too overwhelming. Kiba retched opposite him near a tree with Akamaru whimpering softly.  
  
"Leaf village? Hn! How pathetic. Never seen so many dead bodies I bet," the one with flaming red hair teased. The one with light brown hair tossed the Sound Nin in his hand as though he weighed nothing more than a kilogram.  
  
"What's you relationship with Sound?" Jiraiya asked threateningly taking one step closer towards them.  
  
"You seem the most experienced among them. Still I have no obligations to tell you," the red-haired replied.  
  
"It's interesting to see one in spite of having fought at least twenty Sound Nins to have so such abundant energy," Jiraiya remarked.  
  
"Bet you small fries here are as fragile as these Sound Nins," the red head taunted jerking her face towards a nearby corpse. Growling, Naruto angrily gripped his kunai and was about to rush forward when Kurenai grabbed his vest and pulled him back. She slowly shook her head in disapproval.  
  
"Stop it Akara. We're not here to pick unnecessary fights," he scolded her. Turning to them, he said quietly, "We're on the mission to retrieve my brother. It seems that he was locked away and unable to break free."  
  
"What are yours?" Akara challenged. Naruto glared furiously at her.  
  
"To retrieve someone too," came Jiraiya's short reply. The brown haired looked mildly surprised.  
  
"I wonder how many people they've captured. Makes me wonder why they've been unsuccessful in breaking out. We should join forces," she paused with a faint mocking smile on her lips and glanced at the brown haired ninja. "But of course," she continued. "Tsukishi here wouldn't allow that."  
  
"That's enough Akara," Tsukishi curtly commanded. "Leaf Village stands on the verge of war like all others. However do note, Stone Village will not take part." He said _'not'_ with such a vengeance that it seemed that he was directing it to Akara who stood looking extremely amused. She causally pulled her dark green shirt which seemed black in comparison to her flaming red hair. "Now let's go," he instructed pulling his fur-lined hood over his head and leaped off in the direction of the Sound Village.  
  
"I have the strangest feeling that we'll definitely meet- again," she said, bowing with a peculiar smile on her thin lips. She pulled her black hood over her head and followed Tsukishi's lead.  
  
Naruto frowned and swore silently to beat the daylights out of that Akara guy the next time he saw them. "Let's not waste anymore time," Naruto said, his voice had a shade of anger that could not be disguised. Jiraiya nodded and they departed hurriedly without a backward glance.

(1) Tsuchi means Earth, Like Konoha means Leaf


	6. Gone without a clue

Death Angel  
  
With the sun beating mercilessly on them, the constant murmur of Konohamaru's endless grumbles became as familiar though not necessarily as welcomed as the wind that gently danced through the field they were weeding. "OH be quiet Konohamaru," Ameki muttered yawning as her slender foot dangled over the bank and trailed through the clear waters. She tied a string to her kunai and started to throw it at trees before pulling it back. Kakashi idly glanced up from his 'Come Come Paradise' up in the cool shade of the leafy trees. "You've a long- way to go," she commented as she swung her head back to watch him.  
  
Many hours later, the long awaited dismissal from Kakashi finally came. "Will we get finally get any training tomorrow?" Konohamaru groaned as he stretched his cramped limbs from the hours of picking litter in the river.  
  
"I'll think about it," Kakashi said before disappearing in a lightning-fast leap and bound. Konohamaru slumped against the fence looking beat when Udoso suggested Ramen. "Ameki- joining us?" Udoso asked in a slightly hopeful tone. Konohamaru's sudden perked face winced at Udoso's words. She glanced at Konohamaru's expression and shook her head slightly.  
  
"My brother's expecting me back early," she said in her soft voice.  
  
"Konohamaru-kun, invite her," Udoso said turning to Konohamaru. Konohamaru frowned looking unpleasantly at Ameki. "After all she did help u with your weeding," Udoso stated.  
  
"Udoso-san, it's ok. I got to go," Ameki said firmly and jumped onto the roof to make her way back. In less than few minutes, she jumped noiselessly onto a quiet alley that led to the road to apartment. A little movement behind her caused her to spin around, drawing a kunai. She gasped as her arm was wrenched behind her to an almost breaking point. Reflexively she swung her body to allow her left foot to hit her attacker's head. However her attacker grasped her ankle and twisted it to a breaking point too. She viciously bit her lip to stop herself from screaming in pain as her arm broke in her attempt.  
  
"Be silent and I'll spare your life," he snarled. She glared angrily at him. His silver hair almost had her mistake him for Kakashi but as her eyes traveled downwards, she noticed his sound headband.  
  
"You-! Sound!" she hissed nastily barely concealing the pain in her voice. "You won't kill me, or you'll have already done it. Now let go of my limbs or I'll yell for my brother."  
  
"I'm not that silly," he said calmly. A clone of his stepped forth from the shadow with a cloth. She silently swore under her breath. "Now, I can't have you bringing attention to my presence can I?" he said in some what mocking sweetness. His clone covered her nostrils with the cloth to make her pass out. Slinging her across his shoulder, he headed towards the border. Her flute was left unnoticed in the shadows.  
  
  
  
Kotetsu glanced out of the window, the sky seemed as though it as been painted from shades of blue to pink, purple and then to grey. "Worrying about her?" Izumo asked. "We both know she can take care of herself perfectly well. Besides, she probably somewhere out there training, knowing how much she likes training."  
  
"She promised to be back early, she never breaks promises-"  
  
"Fine, fine. I'll check with the academy and you check her training grounds," Izumo suggested. Kotetsu mutely nodded unable to shake the foreboding feeling.  
  
  
  
Kakashi yawned as he passed the report to Iruka. "How are they?" Iruka inquired with a slight smile on his face. He carefully stacked the reports to bring up to the hokage's office. Before Kakashi could reply Izumo appeared in a cloud of smoke.  
  
"Ah, Kakashi. Your team just finished?" Izumo asked cheerfully.  
  
"Not for a few hours ago," Kakashi said lazily. "What's wrong?"  
  
"I expect she was so engrossed in training that she forgot," Izumo laughed. Suddenly Kotetsu appeared the same way Izumo had holding a flute and a piece of cloth. His eyebrows were knitted so tightly together that Izumo knew that he had didn't find her either.  
  
"Her flute," Kotetsu said. "She never goes without her flute. It's definitely hers."  
  
"Maybe she dropped it or perhaps she went out with her teammates?" Izumo suggested. Kotetsu shook his head ruefully and passed the cloth for Izumo to smell. "This is-"  
  
"Chloroform," Kotetsu finished his sentence for him. "Why would anyone carry chloroform for?"  
  
"So- she's- kidnapped?" Iruka asked. "Why?"  
  
"That doesn't matter. We have to search for her now," said Kotetsu angrily.  
  
Kakashi looked at them. "Our last mission ended a few hours ago. Assuming she left immediately and then was kidnapped, they could be very far away and almost anywhere by now," Kakashi analysed.  
  
"But-!" Kotetsu yelled gripping the flute tightly.  
  
"What's going on here?" Tsunade interrupted glancing at their faces.  
  
Author's Note

Sorry for the delay! I was so caught up with my schoolwork and my other stuff that I had practically no free time. Sorry! (bows) I promise if u review for me.. I'll post the next one up.. I'll probably do it offline then type it.. pls! Ok? Thank you!! I love u all!! (kisses them on the cheek )


	7. In the heart of everything

Death Angel

They watched the compound quietly as they waited for night to fall. It was not long soon each fell asleep from the exhaustion of the lengthy chase since they left Leaf Village. Only Naruto kept a faithful watch as he thought of the four years that had passed since Sasuke left. 'That demented Sasuke, stupid power crazy idiot,' Naruto scolded under his breath. Idly, he wondered how much Sasuke had changed since then; after all he himself had changed a lot. From the time when the mission failed, he pushed himself hard and was a rival to Lee for the most hard-working genius. Now even girls began to gawk at him and his 'beautiful toned muscles' they termed it.

As his brain dully shifted onto other subjects, he noticed Tsukishi and Akara leaving the compound. Suddenly he saw a group chase after them. Those eyes could only belong to two people and it was definitely not the older one. He quickly aroused them from their slumber explaining what he had seen. He watched their reactions; neither of them seemed surprised that Sasuke had ended up joining Orochimaru.

"Naruto, I'm sorry. We won't go far Sasuke. We have to get to Orochimaru first," Jiraiya calmly said. Naruto angrily slammed the tree trunk with his fist, earning a nice dent in the trunk. Kurenai flinched from the tension created between both teacher and student. "That's final," said Jiraiya firmly. Naruto growled angrily but said nothing for he knew that it was the only decision to guarantee bringing Sasuke back.

"Most unimpressive," Orochimaru remarked turning around as the door was flung open. "I can't tell if you're here to kill me or get Sasuke or perhaps both. Kukuku- Too bad. For in any case, you won't get any further. Kukuku-" he laughed sinisterly.

Jiraiya frowned and smirked. "Don't see you faithful servant here."

"Oh, he's off with a mission. Someone has caught my eye. A very interesting specimen from a very interesting clan in fact," Orochimaru chuckled. Without any warning, Orochimaru's tongue flew out and grabbed Jiraiya's foot. He heavily slammed Jiraiya through the open door and into a tree.

"Jiraiya-sama!" Kurenai yelled unable to move from her spot when the new four gates intercepted them.

"You won't get any further," the one with white hair said.

Slowly, Orochimaru walked towards them. "Come on Naruto. Don't be scared. Don't you want to fight me?" he mocked as he inched menacingly even closer.

"Naruto! Don't!" Kurenai ordered.

"I was trained for this," he snarled and rushed towards Orochimaru. "The rest are yours!" he said.

Four Naruto(s) rushed towards Orochimaru. Two of them grabbed him while the others used Rasengan on him.

"It's a nice attack, sadly, I can't see who you are attacking," Orochimaru commented appearing behind them. The 'Orochimaru' that the clones had been holding onto turned into soil. Naruto growled. The clones disappeared as they threw shurikens at Orochimaru.

"Shadow Replication!"

"Nice. Shadow Shuriken Replication," Orochimaru countered. "It'd have been a nice fight. Pity I got other things to do now. Kukuku- I'll be seeing you around," he sniggered as his body sank into the ground.

"I won't let you go! Earth Prision!" Naruto yelled placing his left hand on the ground. The earth around Orochimaru swiftly bound him.

"Kukuku- it won't work on me," Orochimaru said. Snakes appeared and bound Naruto as he vanished into the ground. Naruto winced as the snakes bound even tighter. Concentrating, he pulled the Kyuubi's chakara and burst the snakes apart.

"My silly comrades. Did I not tell you not to come?" Sasuke said. His hair was slightly longer but still just as spiky. However, his face had changed; his cheeks were sunken making his eyes have an odd evil look about them.

"Sasuke! You bastard!" Naruto yelled.

"Spinning Claw!" Kiba yelled as he finally finished the three sound Nins that appeared when the Orochimaru disappeared along with the Four Gates. Kurenaibent over Jiraiya and slapped him trying to get to wake up.

"Kukuku- I can easily beat you up and move on to the next few."

"This is not the way to get power even if you wanted. Have you forgotten everything?" Naruto hollered furiously.

"There was nothing worth remembering back there in the first place."

"Power comes from protecting the ones you love," Naruto said struggling to control his anger. "Can't you even remember Sakura-Chan?" A look flashed through Sasuke's cold eyes. '_He controls Sasuke's will_' Naruto growled and rushed towards Sasuke. Reflexively, Sasuke used the phoenix spirit fire Jutsu. With some rapid seals, Naruto used appeared behind him.

"Over her you idiot!" Naruto yelled as his left foot made contact with Sasuke's head. Sasuke fell onto the ground. "I underestimated you," Sasuke snarled dusting the dirt off him. A cold realization as Naruto stared defiantly into Sasuke's two drops Sharingan. He immediately averted his eyes to settle somewhere near his neck. "Kukuku-, it won't work on me again," Sasuke laughed as he flipped away from Naruto's charge. "Shadow Snake hands!"

Four snakes shot out of Sasuke's sleeve and wrapped around Naruto. Suddenly two arms broke from the ground beneath Sasuke and pulled him into the earth. The Naruto Sasuke had grabbed disappeared in a puff of smoke.

'_Shit!_'

"Clawing whirlwind!" Kiba and Akamaru spun toward Sasuke. Sasuke blew multiple fireball towards them.

"Where are you looking?" Naruto bellowed, punching straight into Sasuke's head.

"Urgh!" Sasuke moaned falling cold.

'_Naruto has improved much,_' Jiraiya thought thinking of the fight he had just watched.

'_His speed is practically matchable to Lee's-_' Kurenai commented to herself.

"How do we tie Sasuke up?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya stood up and flashed a few hand seals; the earth wrapped around Sasuke and harden instantly.

Slapping a few paper writings onto the earth, Jiraiya motioned them to leave. Kiba swung Sasuke over his shoulder and they departed.


	8. running away

Death Angel

She blinked at the sight of trees whizzing past her. Struggling slightly, she found herself bound very tightly. She couldn't even more her legs separately. /_Great- Kidnapped by a sound with me not having the faintest idea why_/

"Quite struggling- or I'll break you other arm," he said to her gruffly and hit her hard. She grimaced and looked at him only sort of free limb. It was bound tightly with two splints to hold it straight. /_Must be a medic ninja. Hmm- wouldn't have bothered if he were simply using me as a bait_/ she glumly thought and wondered if it was just him on this mission. Closing her eyes, she listened carefully to the surroundings for perhaps another rhythmic landing and jumping of ninjas. Two were on her left and one on her right, but they were far. Without knowing which direction they had been heading, she had no idea which way to travel should she manage to escape. She shifted trying to increase the Chakra in her ears. She discovered that there was something preventing her to shift her Chakra flow or increase it or doing anything more than the normal flow. Things began to look real bad as she started to plot her escape. Death seemed better than to be brought to an unknown place for an unknown cause. She bit her lip as she carefully stretched her broken arm down to the ninja's pouch. With some great effort, she shrivelled her body and sprang towards her kidnapper's head to smack it hard. He was stunned temporarily releasing her just a little bit, but that was enough. She reached into his pouch as she fell and grabbed a few kunai. They were different from normal ones, hooked and seemed to be made to cut ropes or something close to that.

Landing on her feet, she tore the ropes that bound her feet quickly. He glared fiercely at her and pounced towards her but she had already started running. Her breath quickened and in no time she was tired. That something was still preventing her from putting chakra into her feet and jump like all normal ninjas moves. She heard the rhythmic landing not to far behind her. He was rapidly catching up. Whoever were the other three ninjas, it didn't seem as though they had been alerted unless-. Making a hasty decision, she turned towards the direction of the two ninjas and fled. She prayed fervently that she was not making a wrong decision.

Suddenly, perhaps due to her exhaustion, she tripped over the roots of a tree. She cursed every second that she allowed her kidnapper to gain distance. "Well, well, looks like you've finally given up. It was such a boring chase that I could have almost fallen asleep," the silver hair ninja peered at her through his glasses. Her heart seemed to threaten the break from its bone cage. She pulled the cloth from her mouth. /_I hope, I hope! Please help!_/ she screamed shrilly for help. The ninja grabbed her broken arm and pulled it so sharply that she shrieked in shock and pain. She gritted her teeth and kicked him desperate to be free.

"Little girl, this is completely sound territory. No one will save you," said him with a rather cruel expression. The pain in her arm was agonizing that for a moment she thought she had hallucinated and saw something wrap around the ninja's ankle. She gasped in shock as she and the ninja was flung to the tree. Frantically she tried to free her broken arm.

"I don't think that's quite true-," said the ninja with pure white hair that touched the ground. "Ah- Kabuto- I have to admit, I was wondering a moment ago what mission Orochimaru sent you on."

/_Sannin! Not good._/ Kabuto thought. "I was thinking of taking the long way home," he replied pulling Ameki towards him only to find Naruto holding rather tightly on his arm. "Well, I guess I'll take the short way home then." He flashed a few hand signs and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Ameki heaved a sigh of relief and turned to the foursome.

"Thank you," she bowed earnestly at them before looking up.

/_Konoha's headbands!_/

"Where are you from?" Jiraiya asked. She reached up to her forehead and felt her sweat drenched skin instead of cold metal.

"Konoha-" Tiredly she sank to the ground. They stared at her with mixed expressions. Well, she did look rather odd Ameki admitted to herself. It's not everyday that you see a girl half about in ropes and sporting a broken arm. Kurenai walked over to her and ripped a paper that was sticking on her. The ropes that bound Ameki unravelled.

"This paper is not usually used on normal civilians. This means that you're a ninja." Ameki almost instantly felt the smoothing relief of her Charka converting and filling her energy-deprived parts. Even her broken arm felt whole again, the infuriating pain had disappeared. She pulled the splints apart and swung her arm. Her arm was more or less a whole piece again.

"Who are you?" Naruto aggressively asked.

"Hagane Ameki," she replied unblinking at them under their scornful looks. Jiraiya smiled slightly.

"Ah- so you're Hagane Ameki."

"She doesn't carry any features of the Hagane clan," Kurenai muttered.

"I don't look like my clan-" Ameki stiffly replied.

"Then we can't say for sure that she's really Hagane- and why will she be here in the first place-"

"That doesn't matter-" Jiraiya answered.

"But-"

Jiraiya stared at Kurenai who glared. Finally they graced across the trees on the road back how. Jiraiya and Kurenai made no sound as they jumped and landed on the tree branches. It was as if they were tiptoeing across, but of course they were not. Ameki shook her head to clear her jumbled thoughts. She wasn't making much sense. All she wanted to do now was to snuggle in her brother's arms and feel safe. She froze in mid-thought. /_That's odd- I never was very close to Kotetsu-onisan. He never hugged me and I never hugged me- I wonder why those thoughts suddenly appeared-_/ The scar on her back shot up in pain. /_Wha-_/ It felt like her whole back was on fire, but she bore the pain silently by biting her lips and tears streaming down her face. In a way, it was good that neither of the foursome gave her much attention.

Kiba shrugged the heavy load off his back and onto Naruto's hands. Akamaru had been driving him crazy with his constant whining that was not at all normal. He had the right mind to properly ask him what was wrong once they were safely into Konoha's territory. With Kurenai fuming and Jiraiya staring sternly it was definitely not the time to stop. Lazily, he shifted his gaze across the landscape. The sudden stench of blood overpowered his sense and he caught the glimmer of red somewhere to their left as he tripped in shock. He quickly flipped and somehow managed to land on his feet before springing back to the front of the group. "Blood-" he turned to Jiraiya.

Author's note

I'm wondering if anyone is still reading this..


	9. Past and present

Death Angel

-Author's Note-

Sorry for the long update.. : My other comp crashed.. . Along with the almost completed chapters, so yes. I'm so thankful that I actually wrote this on paper before typing on computer, but still the document there had changes to it.. I have to type faster.. .: My schedule doesn't quite permit me (I'm typing in the middle of night, my mum banned me from the comp) sobs ok ok- Happy reading, my hard work.. .

--

"So Ameki is gone," Tsunade gravely said after listening to their explanations and deductions. "I'm afraid that we have no current free ninjas to chase after whoever who did that. I'm sorry Kotetsu, but for now we can only hope for the best. Take the rest of the day off. Just don't be silly and try chasing after her yourself."

"I understand," Kotetsu said bowing as he left. Izumo caught Tsunade's eye as he left nodding in agreement.

****

"You know- Ameki isn't my real sister-" Kotetsu muttered to Izumo throwing the empty beer can away. "It's not that I don't treat her as my sister, but it's just that she's different from our clan. Just- different-"

Izumo's eyes widened in surprise; he had always known that Ameki was different from the clan in certain ways. He had never guessed that it was mainly due to the fact that Ameki was never really Hagane to start with. "Do you- still hate her?" he asked carefully choosing his words.

Kotetsu threw his head back and laughed. "How could I? What I believed could never be proven in the first place. Besides she was so easy to look after-" he lowered his head. "-And she helped me so many times without me asking- to hate her would be- foolish-" They lay on the floor quietly, their minds both brooding over that incident.

/Flashback/

"You idiot! You stupid-" Kotetsu paused finally lost at words to continue yelling at Ameki. He swore a string of vulgarities at her.

"Kotetsu! Calm down!"

Kotetsu threw his palm heavily across the six-year-old girl. Yet she still looked expressionlessly at him, the red shade spreading across her right cheek. "Murder! You killed her!"

Izumo grabbed Kotetsu frantically trying to hold Kotetsu down. "Kotetsu, that is unproven," Sandaime said eyeing the scene before him.

"Only her will know. You know very well that your mother was no weak ninja. She would never be able overpower a fully-fledged Special Jounin."

Kotetsu angrily glared at Sandaime and then at Ameki. Six-year-old Ameki stood there staring blankly at furious Kotetsu. Rain pelted onto them mercilessly, drenching them thoroughly and washing the blood away.

"(1) Hana Okami-" she replied in her quiet voice, strangely unperturbed by Kotetsu's slap or anger.

"That's completely impossible-" Kotetsu grinding those words through clenched teeth. He waved Izumo away taking menacing steps towards her. The scattered purple petals Wisteria petals crushed beneath his sandal. "You know very well that flowers can never harm. Liar. Don't ever let me see you." He spun around stonily marching back to town.

Izumo hastily checked Ameki's wounds. "Don't worry, let him cool down first. Tonight, you'll stay over my house." Ameki passively looked at him with her gunmetal grey eyes.

"Kotetsu-onisan said that flowers could never harm. But Ameki was not lying-" her voice was steady, calm unlike someone's would be who had just witness the brutal death of a woman torn screaming apart in front of her. Somehow her silence and stillness scared him. It was extremely creepy.

/End of flashback/

------

****

"Naruto lead Kiba and Ameki back to town with Sasuke. Kurenai and I will go to investigate the scene. It's so close to our borders and strangely I haven't seen a single Anbu," Jiraiya ordered. Naruto nodded and without a second glance, they split.

Naruto sped through the forest the lush greenery turning into an endless blur around them. All of them seemed to be in thought, Naruto noticed. "Pursuers," Kiba said. "Eleven of them. Two platoon." Naruto frowned thinking.

"Right, this is the plan, Kiba. You will continue with Ameki. I will fight them since I have the highest chance of making out there alive. Kiba, you'll have to fight if there's anymore. I hope to stop all though." Naruto stopped on the branch, Kiba acknowledging his command. /All the hours of playing shogi with Shikamaru is starting to pay off-/ Naruto thought darkly to himself.

During his four years, Jiraiya forced him to sit down day after day to play shogi, a Japanese chess, with Shikamaru. Day after day, Shikamaru called him idiotic correcting his move after move, forcing him to think several steps ahead. Even the crows started to seem as though they were calling him idiot! 'How long was it?' Naruto asked himself. 'Six months? Ten months?' He grumbled making an obvious fake trail away from the original. He hid himself well, keeping an eye on the route and straining to hear the pursuers.

"Well well, looks like they weren't that stupid after all," a particular ninja commented after three of them were shocked by the electricity generated by the four seals. "Are you coming out or what?"

Naruto grinned to himself. /Just one more/

The ninja walked forward. Naruto pulled his shurikens out. /Just a little closer-/

"Look out!" the ninja yelled. Naruto leaped out the bushes throwing his shurikens while flashing many numerous seals. He had trained plenty out of hours and definitely is no longer as stupid as he was to scream the name of the attack out anymore. He laughed to himself. /Shadow Shuriken!/

"Urgh-"

/Eight left/ Naruto counted the bodies. There was one short. /Must be the moronic one to prevent ambush again/ "well, well, looks like you're the one that fell for it," he smirked. The ninja waved his hands and the ninjas behind retreated back to the original trail. "Not so fast." Naruto made his shadow clones. Suddenly he noticed someone behind him /Shit! /

"Kya-!"

****

Kiba turned his head. "Did you hear that?" Kiba asked incredulously. Ameki nodded. "There are some pursuers! We must quicken our pace. You're a ninja right? Good, I'll do my best. What ever you do, you must not let them get Sasuke," Kiba said. He passed her Sasuke. They streaked through the forest going at a pace that made her feel as though her legs were about to drop off. The trees were not just a blur they now had no shape. Just an endless green mixed with a little brown though hardly noticeable flying past them. The pain in her back was still ceaselessly infuriating her. "Hurry!" Kiba said finally stopping. He turned and began to ready for confrontation.

Ameki glanced back nervously, forcing herself to pick the pace up. Konoha was not very much further. Another half an hour at that pace and she should be safely into the walls of Konoha. /Should that was/ she thought.

Akamaru growled. "Steady now, Akamaru," Kiba muttered. Now that Akamaru had grown up to almost half of his height, he looked intimidating by himself. There was an odd scent, completely unidentifiable. "Eh? What's wrong Akamaru? Akamaru!?"

**End of Chapter**

_Hana Okami- When broken apart and put together it means flower wolf. Hana (flower) and Okami (wolf)_

Author's Note

Urgh.. I actually planned to fix the whole fights together and round it off with Ameki so I can put out the Sasuke chp.. But I figured if I did it, it'll not only be too long, it'll kinda lose its climax.. and be very dready after a while.. already I'm starting to dislike the style.. sighs but so u'll have to review () to get the next chps.. Muahahha.. I can't wait to put out the Sasuke.. Plus Kabuto's secret.. Finally Doesn't anyone ever wonder about Kabuto's betrayal.. grins crazily I'm getting there!!! Actually.. I wrote it already.. XD XD I need to type it out, and I need motivation Review Yes Sir Review () I'm not getting enough.. :'(

That reminds me, someone noted that the chps are getting lousier.. XD I hate to admit it but I'm terribly dissatisfied with these. I'm currently hoping to turn it around. I'm not a good novel writer.. P If you wan, you should look at my stories instead on my web pg (Are we allowed to advertise web pgs?) Just look at my em.. profile.. :P


	10. The unknown cause?

Death Angel

He glanced at Akamaru's whining form. His hair prickled with an acute fear that he had not felt since bumping into Gaara's team during his chuunin exam. His legs screamed to flee as the scent not only got stronger-it grew bigger. His hands trembled unconsciously as he stared intently into the rapidly darkening forest. The screeches of the nesting birds overwhelmed his ears shutting his sharp sense of hearing. /What the hell is that thing/ He asked continuously as he saw the first shape from the dark surroundings. /Akamaru is of no help now- /

The Dummy's guide to Ambushing

Always be smart.

Camouflage!

Use tricks

Use wire traps

Use paper seals

Use a dummy

Use an illusion

If all else fails, just act cool and wait for death

He paused at that last thought. /Wait for- death- Wow, how interesting. / he made a mental note to write to the author. With no time to set any traps or even dummies, he leaned against the tree, coolly watching the growing blobs.

"Yo-" he called as they began to pass him. He pulled the loose string attached to the opposite tree with his kunai and successfully tipping the first two. He spun around, his drawn kunai meeting his enemies' shurikens. The glints of the weak sunlight reflecting off the metal weapons not stopping as he met his opponents with plenty vigor and enthusiasm. He struck his kunai into ninja, twisting it to make the bone snap. /That scent, it's- not from them- /

All of a sudden, the shrieking birds had turned to an eerie silence that only served to increase the foreboding feeling. A presence seemed to loom behind him, the scent rapidly increasing in size and concentration.

He growled plunging his claw-like nails into his enemy's face listening to following scream. Naruto turned glaring at the two remaining sound nins with his blood red eyes. "Come," he motioned at them with his hand a motion very similar to what Lee often does.

The sound nin pulled his cloak up revealing the metal arm. Six large holes were drilled through it. The sound nin smirked, now discarding his cloak as he advanced towards Naruto. Naruto soared towards the sound nin, raising his arm to punch the sound nin. However suddenly he remembered that that arm looked not only familiar to a particular sound nin that he watched during the matches of the chuunin exam, he was quite sure that it worked the same way as that sound nin did. He rotated his charka, using a skill that he mastered just a month ago. The sound nin gaped at him watching Naruto mid-air flip, he quickly swung his metal arm out, meeting Naruto's punch. Naruto could practically feel the huge change of direction of the charka in the sound nin. He quickly leapt away, barely missing the charka missile.

"Pretty good," the sound nin commented smugly.

Naruto smirked, " Don't look so complacent." The looming shadow appeared behind the sound nin. His clone swiftly jabbing into the back. The sound nin moaned, unable to move anymore. "Don't worry I'm sure our ANBU will find you in an hour or two, and in three hours, you'll be able to move again." Naruto smiled cheerfully. His once bright blonde hair had darken slightly over the years, producing an almost duplicate of the fourth hokage. 'Well then,' Naruto thought, sealing the kyubi back. His nails returned to its original length and the whiskers-like lines faded to look somewhat like scratches. 'Damn, let seven go," Naruto swore picking up the back pace to Kiba and Ameki. He ran with all his might hoping to reach Kiba and Ameki as soon as possible.

"Hn, don't lose you concentration young boy," the sound nin said. He pulled his katana out bringing forward as he rushed towards Kiba. Metal screeched against each other. Beads of perspiration clustering each individual's face. The sound nin spun around pulling out two shurikens.

"AKAMARU!" Kiba yelled unable to stop the shurikens' path as it flew towards the dog. Furious, he reached over and clawed through the sound nin's face. He turned towards remaining five with a look that looked possessed.

"Run!" The ninja told the rest of them. "GO!" The two ninja managed to dodge Kiba's crazy blows slipping past him. The sound nin pulled a flute out and with a grimace he blew a slow tune. The other two not too successful had their face maimed by his sharp claws.

"You know why we're called sound nins?" the sound nin smiled his pearl white teeth showing above his mask. Kiba glared at him, his hands covering his ears.

Her heart pounded so loudly that she swore those pursuing her were bound to have heard it. The flower shaped scar that was hurting her seemed nonexistence in compared to the need of reaching the safety of within the borders of the hidden leaf village. As the shape of it began to loom closer, she heard the distinct crack of branches as it bent to support her pursuers. She flipped to her, landing on the trunk of the tree. The dull thud of shurikens falling onto the branches appeared to announce the beginning of her fight. She crouched down as if to leap towards them and suddenly jumped backwards. A chain that she had pulled out flew towards them. On each end of the chain was a sharp blade. /Metal dance!/ She fed the chain her charka, pulling it smoothly around as she had always practiced in her long training sessions. Twisting it as it embedded itself into the ninja's arm, she pulled bits if the ninja's flesh along with it.

"Hn, I can't believe u just got hit by a brat," the sound nin gloated at the other. She pulled it back watching the sound nins movement.

/There is greater importance of bringing Sasuke back than fighting these two/ she quickly calculated her risks of staying and fighting. Taking her chance, she turned and dashed towards the borders of the hidden leaf village. Though so close, the distance appeared to be impossible. She bound Sasuke tighter to her, his weight pressing on her diminishing stamina. The sounds of pursuers yet grew and was swiftly catching up. So did the pain in her back increased as they grew nearer. She spun away unable to dodge all the shurikens. She bit back a shout while the shurikens buried it sharp blades into her flesh. She tripped on the branch falling fast and painfully onto the roots of the gnarled tree, its pretty petals falling over her.

Kiba could no longer keep the tune out of his ears. Like a termite it was burying into his brain, it felt like needles were inserted into him. "No-" he bent over unable to cope with the pain.

All of a sudden, it stopped. Naruto smiled at Kiba who had looked up warily at the disappearance of the tune. The sound nin fell to the ground, a kunai straight through his neck. Crimson blood pooling around the barely living sound nin. "Let's go and find Ameki now," Naruto grinned at him.

"So we meet again-" Akara drawled upon catching the sight of Jiraiya's white hair. She dropped the corpse that she was holding and wiped her mouth that only served to smear the scarlet blood over her cheek.

"You-" Kurenai started but incapable of finishing her sentence. She could only stare shell shocked at Akara. Akara smiled wider knowing Kurenai had put the pieces together, her blood stained teeth beaming through her sneer.

"What do you want?" Tsukishi demanded from the branches above. His grey eyes emotionless watched them with a sharp intensity. "I hardly imagined to see you twice," he paused with a faint smirk, "alive-" His eyes traveled behind Jiraiya. "Well, with your team killed its hardly not imaginable."

Jiraiya frowned. "They left with our charge. I see the reason of the strong blood scent. Leave our borders now."

"We're hardly interested in Leaf Village," Tsukishi remarked before playing a soft tune with his flute. The wind picked up and the spiraling leaves began to form two large wolves with fur and all. The two wolves tilted their head respectfully towards Tsukishi and his brother. Deftly, the trio saddled the two wolves. Akara laughed manically as they ran through the woods leaving two stunned ninjas behind.

"Ameki!" Kiba called, turning her over. Naruto surveyed the two dead sound nins. Thankfully, Sasuke still remained with her. Though strange, it seemed as though the two sound nins had been torn apart. Their limbs were scattered all over the place. Only the falling petals made the place look less gruesome.

Kotetsu's lips pressed so tightly that it formed a straight line. Naruto was discussing the details with Tsunade. Neither had any vague idea on what could have happened. The only last solution was to wait for Ameki to come round.

"The ANBU could find no other weapon apart from the chains of Ameki. There is no plausible explanation at the moment," Shikamaru reported.

Kotetsu knew that there could only be one reason. He himself had been at the scene to inspect the details. That meant that all those years that he had thought he had maligned her were false.


	11. Forgotten truth

**Author's note:**

The update was a little slower than what I promised, sorry. : Before you read this, you should know that the for the next few chapters, I may focus a little much more on my own characters mainly because I want to get their side plot out as fast as possible and then focus entirely on our dearly beloved Naruto and Sasuke and all the little additions.

Whatever it may be, bear with me and enjoy. : )

-----

She paused right outside the building, looking up it. It was a building that had become so familiar to them, especially her. After all, it had always been Kakashi and Naruto that had often landed up in it. Usually, she would have smiled at the memories, but today it was different. It was a different person she was visiting today. Someone she had not seen for ages. Two years to be precise. She hesitated, unsure of herself. Closing her green eyes, she took a deep breath and walked into the building.

--------------------------

He gave a small smile, watching the pink haired girl heatedly questioning the intern. It would have been really funny, except she was pretty known for her super strength and she might lose her temper even more and punch the poor intern.

"Sakura –" he called out, his hands still stuck in his pocket. "Sakura –" he called louder to be heard over the commotion. She paused in her sentence, looking up.

"Shikamaru –?"

"This way –" he motioned, walking ahead knowing that she'd follow. News spread fast after all and it would not be long till his friends would try and get his room number. Of course, he being a prisoner and all, that meant his room number had to be kept a secret.

"Go easy on them next time," he sighed. "You know our regulations –" He looked at her from the corner of his eye. She nodded embarrassedly, looking at the ground. He stopped in his tracks. "I hope you remember that you're not allowed to tell them the room number. As much as I understand that you want to see him really bad, you still have to –"

"I know! You don't have to lecture me –" she replied. "I just – want to see him –"

He sighed yet again, "women are so troublesome –" slapping his face with his hand and pointed to the door on the right with his thumb. "He's not going to be like what you expected," he said with a slight frown. "Don't say I didn't warn you –" and with that he walked off.

She leaned her head against the door, her hand resting on the handle. All the different emotions were running through her. '_Should I be angry or upset or happy?_' she wondered. '_What am I hesitating for?_' she chided herself and pulled the door opened.

"Sakura – chan"

Her eyes widen in surprise, for a moment she had believed it had been Sasuke that had called her name. The blonde guy stared at her with his piercing blue eyes waiting for a response. "N-naruto," she stammered, blushing embarrassed at actually believing Sasuke was awake. Her eyes slid to the pale figure beside Naruto.

"He's not going to be awake for you to talk to him Sakura-chan," Naruto sadly said. "I wish I could do something but you know –" he trailed off. The thick silence hovering about them as they both stared at Sasuke's unconscious figure with different expressions, Naruto frowned wondering how he should go about removing Sasuke's seal. Sakura however though still worried, was flooded with relief. He was really here and hopefully would be back to his old self so she thought. A woman's single hope sometimes was never the most realistic thing to hold onto.

--------------------------

She watched patiently, watching the slight figure breathe and wondered if she should wait for the figure to wake up. As she hesitated, the brows of the sleeping figure furrowed and the breathing hastened. She sighed flopping her head on her arm, how boring could it be waiting for someone to wake up anyway. All of a sudden, the door pulled open. She instinctively pulled out a kunai, ready to fight and froze, unsure how to react. The sleeping girl wasn't a prisoner but she wasn't exactly free to leave either.

"Oh Shikamaru – its you. And – you," she sighed, returning to her seat. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her in puzzlement.

"Perhaps Kotetsu?" she replied uncertain.

"I doubt he'd be seeing her anytime soon –" Izumo said glancing at the sleeping figure. "She sure slept a lot – looks like bad dreams too."

"Well, any idea what happened?" she questioned.

"That is the point why _you_ are here, isn't it?" Izumo rebuked. Shikamaru glanced at Izumo with a perplexed look. Izumo had always been the calmer one of the two, it was definitely out of character for Izumo to attack Ino with such words. She sighed, twining her fingers into her long blonde hair. "They do say that some things are easier to extract from the person when he is still unconscious," Izumo continued not bothered with their reactions.

"Izumo-san I hope you understand what you are trying to do. Can you imagine –"

"Ino –" Shikamaru interrupted, placing his hand on her left shoulder. "You know that we have to do what we have to do."

The blonde sighed yet again and reluctantly did the seals for her skill.

A dark hallway of numerous doors route before, each looking like the other, with much hesitation she paced the hallway trying to figure which door to open. Each was an entry to part of a memory, something important or perhaps significant. Sometimes it was there but the person might not have remembered or was aware of it. She bit her lip, there was no point wavering here, she could only try each door until she got the correct scene. Summoning her courage up, she opened the closest door.

Fire licked her black sandals. Shocked she leapt back a step. Though she had not been looking for this memory, it was interesting. Countless of bodies littered the scene, the fire rampaged the house, somewhere further down a little boy stood over an even younger girl. 'Is that –' Ino wondered, walking over to take a better look. The girl hugged the lady fiercely as she cried.

"Hey little one, you must remember the jutsu mother taught you," the boy said. He slumped near her coughing. Blood dribbled down from his mouth. The girl looked up wiping her tears away. All of a sudden, a black blur ran towards them. "NO!" the boy yelled trying to get up and run towards her.

'A black wolf?' Ino thought, catching a glimpse of it as it paused to grab the girl.

"Onisan! Help!" she screamed frailing between its mouth. Ino hurried to catch up with the wolf; the boy had collapsed behind, his body heaving for breaths. He punched the ground angrily, his body too tired to continue. The girl slammed her head heavily into the tree as the wolf sprinted through the trees and then the scene faded into blackness.

Ino blinked, finding herself back into the row of hallways. Something was happening to Ameki for the neat corridor was starting to spiral. Forcing herself to focus more, she hurried down opening the doors until she found the correct one.

"Ino –" she frowned, pushing herself off the table that she had fallen asleep on.

"Ino –" he called her again, waiting for her to impress the information she had gathered into her mind. His eyes flickered over to the trashing girl.

Izumo shook Ameki trying to get her to break from her trance. She screamed then fell heavily into Izumo's arms. Silence reigned in the room, neither Shikamaru nor Izumo was sure what had happened. Most Yamanaka clan members, like Ino, have often refused to intrude into the people's mind hence not much is recorded.

Ino groaned, her head throbbed viciously, she sunk her head into her hands trying to use some of her medical jutsu to heal the pain away.

"Well -?" Izumo impatiently asked. Satisfied with her work, she looked up. She shook her head slightly, a sigh of relief rushed out of Izumo upon seeing it.

"She doesn't have the answers, she definitely was not the one who caused it –" she hesitated unsure if she should mention it. "definitely not, because she passed out before whatever killed those men. Why, I have no idea, however –" she continued, silencing Izumo's efforts to interrupt her and deflecting Shikamaru's deepening frown by focusing her gaze on Ameki. "I did see a scene she witness that was similar to it."

Izumo clenched his fist unconsciously, he wanted to believe that Ameki was completely innocent. The torment on Kotetsu's face was a little too much to bear, after all they had been friends since they had been toddlers, almost practically brothers. Kotetsu was torn between looking after someone who is his adopted sister and hating someone who killed his mother. All his confusion could finally be solved with her proving to be entirely innocent, that was his reason for telling Ino of a similar scene a number of years ago.

"To say she did not do it might be true,' she softly said, relenting a little to glance at her comrades. Shikamaru, the genius, would have figured what she would have been referring to, but with the sight of his puzzlement, it probably was not true. Izumo on the other hand, had horror on his face, eyes widened at her. "But whether she did it consciously or not is another thing." Ino closed her eyes briefly recalling the scene she had seen.

"Ameki? Where are you?" the lady called out somewhere behind her, the sun had set ages ago and all she could hear around her was just the night crickets humming.

A sudden loud thud behind her, made the little girl swivel around, her small hand clutching the kunai that she had stole from her adopted brother's pouch. "Who's there?" she called out into the overwhelming darkness, her voice barely breaking the cricket's hum. Scared, she clutched the hand that was holding the kunai, willing herself to stop trembling.

"Hello – do you remember me?" a honeyed male voice answered. He stepped out from the shadows, looking very casual as though he was not afraid of such an approach. Perhaps he was not and he might have been so acquainted with death that he did not fear death either. Her heart pounded loudly, she may not have recognized him but there was something familiar about him.

Still she bravely asked in a loud clear voice, "Who and what do you want?"

"Such brave words from such a trembling creature," he sneered. He heaved a sigh dramatically, "I'm so hurt you forgot me, maybe you'd remember this –" He flashed some seals. Her eyes widened, taking an involuntary step back as she searched back and forth for something. The wind shuddered, the leaves spinning wildly and consolidated, forming a black wolf.

She screamed, cupping her mouth with her hands to stop screaming but failing. The gunmetal kunai fell uselessly to the ground, as she clutched her head rocking herself back and forth.

"Ameki?" a lady landed beside her looking worriedly at her. Ameki stared at her, her silver eyes widening even more but without recognition. She skitted away from the newcomer like a plague screaming, this time the wind howled angrily, the Wisteria petals from the tree formed two silver wolves.

The man grinned, muttering to himself. "I'll be back another time, for now. Good bye, my sweet prey." He bowed, his wolf fending off the wolves.

"Ameki! Wake up!" the lady yelled, as she dodged and spun from the frenzied wolves. Ameki, who had stopped screaming, could only stare blankly at her as the lady got ripped apart.

Ino looked at Izumo who stood, pale face staring out at the window upon hearing what had happened.

"A man who has the same technique has her, she screams when she sees a black wolf –" Shikamaru pondered, recalling Kotetsu mentioning that she was not only adopted but had burns on her.

"Its not just that Shikamaru –" Ino said and narrated on how she had see that might have happened before she arrived at the Hidden Leaf village.

"Why didn't she just tell us about it?" Izumo growled.

"There may be many reasons, judging from how she started trashing and how Ino described the 'hallway' started to distort after she saw that memory, it probably might have been a memory she wished she forgotten or even had willed herself into forgetting it."

"Water –" Ameki rasped, tugging onto Ino's hand.

"You're awake," Ino said with a small smile as she handed her a cup of water. Izumo and Shikamaru exchanged glances wondering how much Ameki had heard.

"I feel like a ton of bricks had hit me on the head," Ameki muttered. "Did they manage to take Sasuke?"

Ino shook her head, "they were found – ripped apart." Ameki gulped audibly, the water slipping on herself. Her hands reached back as though grabbing something.

"what is it?" Ino asked, reaching over. Before Ameki could reply, Izumo pushed her forward, pulling up the shirt to where her fingers were reaching. They gasped, a clear fully formed picture of a flower, a Magnolia. It was as though someone had tattooed it into her skin.

"Is this what you like to do to girls?" Ameki asked wryly.

"What is the meaning of this?" Izumo demanded, ignoring her sarcastic remark. "It looks as though –" he fell silent; none of them were willing to continue his sentence.

"It's a burn mark," she replied. "And it looks like either one has unlocked the memory I kept away cause I can remember it so clearly again –" her words trembled faintly. "It's the mark of the next clan leader."

--------------------------

"Aniki –" the younger boy called. Tsukishi glanced back at him motioning him to continue. "Its about Tsubaki, she's alive." Tsukishi jerked violently, causing the wolf that they were riding on to jolt. He swore vehemently then apologized to the wolf with seemed to give him a sardonic smirk.

"Are you dumb Tsumero? Its obvious she's alive!" he hollered at him, his fists clenching tightly of the thick fur of the wolf. "Honestly, did you lose your brains with that moronic ninja?"

"I meant – its confirmed she's alive and I know where," the boy called Tsumero replied patiently. The wolves halted in their running, though panting, their eyes gazed at Tsukishi with curiousity, waiting what he'd do. "She's in Hidden Leaf village –" he answered the hanging unasked question.

Tsukishi looked at Akara with a pained expression. "Ara – don't go giving me that look –" Akara dryly said. "Something happened during the fight and god knows where Tsukishi went –" She disembarked from the wolf and went off in her own direction, casting a faint smile. Tsumero raised an eyebrow.

"We've been teammates for ages even though we bicker a lot, we're best of friends," Tsukishi explained.

"I didn't asked," Tsumero laughed, climbing onto the other wolf.

"Where did you hear from this?" Tsukishi asked quietly, he wanted to see his long lost sister for ages, but they had many false alarms and for many years then the question whether she was really alive hung over them like a looming executioner's axe waiting to snatch their hopes away. Without the real clan leader, they had no hope of getting revenge, getting what they had lost back. Now it seemed they might actually be able to accomplish it.


End file.
